Note to readers: Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but I've had some general mess to sort out lately and I think I'm back on track now. Hopefully more of Merry to come! Enjoy.
They'd barely got back to the TARDIS and closed the doors before items of clothes were strewn carelessly across the floor. The Doctor and River made their way slowly up the stairs, their hands never quite leaving each other's bodies. Soon, she had pushed him down onto the floor and her hands were just moving down to unfasten his trousers when he stopped her.
"Wait. Do you think that we should really be doing this here?" he asked.
"Why not?" she replied cheekily, kissing his neck.
"I don't know. It just kinda feels… dirty." He said, squirming slightly. River groaned, resting her forehead on his bare chest.
"That's the whole point, sweetie." She muttered, pulling herself up so that she could look in his eyes. The Doctor smiled sheepishly.
"Oh…" he said in embarrassment. River smiled at his blush and continued.
But that only lasted a minute.
"Hang on." He said, pushing River off him and getting up, turning to face her as she stayed sitting on the floor half dressed, "There's still so much that I don't understand." River sighed.
"Well, forget about it." She replied, "Enjoy the few moments we have alone. That stuff doesn't matter now."
"But it does!" the Doctor cried. He had spent so long with River keeping secrets from him and finding ways out of telling him what he needed to know. She always said that he had to find out himself. But she usually told him. So, why couldn't she tell him now; it would just save time and it would prevent them going through the same conversation over and over again. Tell me. No. Why not? Spoilers.
"For once, River, tell me." He pleaded desperately. When she remained silent he continued, "Merry mentioned her birth. She said that there was something to do with her delivery and things like that. What happened?"
"Doctor, I can't." River replied, tensing at the mention of such events.
"Just tell me!" he cried, "I'm her father. I have a right to know."
"And you will," the archaeologist said, standing up and approaching her husband, "But when the time comes and you experience it all for yourself."
"Experience it for myself?" the Doctor cried incredulously, "I can't wait that long!" River laughed, standing up and moving to stroke his chest gently.
"Neither can I." she said suggestively, licking her lips. Momentarily distracted, he mumbled some approval and began to run his hands along his wife's body.
Suddenly, he shook his head.
"No!" he cried, trying to shift past her. But due to River's diversion, the Doctor had failed to notice that she now had her hand down his trousers. He closed his eyes and hung his head, "I should've known." She grinned.
"You really should've…"
Half an hour later, they emerged from the TARDIS, arm in arm and laughing heartily together.
"I don't believe you!" the Doctor cried and they stumbled down the snow-covered street in absolute hysterics, "You mean it just fell off!" River didn't reply; she was laughing so hard that tears were streaming down her face readily, obstructing her view, so the Doctor continued, "That's disgusting!"
"I know." River managed to say, "I don't know what happened. I mean, one minute it was, you know, there, the next it was on the floor."
"Mine doesn't fall off like that." He retorted, causing his wife to weakly slap his chest as she doubled over. He smiled, "And that's why you shouldn't date a droid. Things like that happen."
"It certainly made things more interesting." She replied, wiping her eyes carefully.
"I'll bet it did." He commented, wrapping his arm around her waist as he led her away from a rather dodgy looking drunkard who was walking dangerously close to the frozen river.
"Where do you suppose the others are?" River asked, still grinning widely.
"Anywhere and everywhere most likely." He said, "Let's go and check out the buskers, shall we?"
"Of course, sweetie." River replied with a nod.
They soon reached the spot that the Doctor had been talking about, but Amy, Rory and Merry were nowhere to be seen.
"Maybe they took a wrong turn." River suggested unsurely.
But the Time Lord hardly noticed her. There was something seriously wrong here. The musicians were indeed where he'd said that they would be. But they were playing for no one. The people walking past scurried along as if their tails were between legs. They were entirely covered by their clothes; nothing but their eyes were showing through. And the emotion that they showed wasn't happiness, or weariness or even the cold: it was fear. They were terrified of being outside. They covered themselves up because they didn't want to be recognized, as if simply being spotted outside was a terrible crime.
The Doctor turned slowly to River, who mirrored what he imagined his current expression looked like.
"Can you feel it too?" he whispered. She looked back to the man playing the fiddle in the street in front of them.
"Yes." She muttered, turning away without meeting his eyes, "We need to find the others." But they didn't even have time to start moving before a bloodcurdling scream filled the air.
